Do dogs understand what a human says?

Answer 1

yes dogs and cats understand humans my daughter has 2chihuahuas i call them my hairy grandchildren they understand just fine when they are outside and dont want to come inside i can even count 1 2 3 and they will respond they walk real slow until i get to 2 1/2 and then they run in the door

Answer 2

Not nessasarily. Dogs though they do sit when we say sit, don't understand that word. the associate the sound with an action. Doesn't mean they understand it.
When a dog is told "no" when they've misbehaved it doesn't mean that they understand "no don't do that again", that's not why they look away and put their ears back and they're tail under their legs. It's the body language. Usually when you're yelling at the pup, you're eyes are narrowed, your brow is furrowed, you may have a hand on your hip or be wagging a finger at them. And usually you're using an agressive tone. It's the same with training the dog to sit or lay down. Most of the time an action is used with the word. That's what the dog catches onto before the word. To them the word may be just a bunch of mumblings.
However this is all speculation. I could be very wrong, dogs may understand everything that we say and may just be messing with us. ^^
Hope this helps and didn't confuse anything too badly.
~Manda

Answer 3

yes otherwise they wouldn't be trainable....I wouldn't say that they understand out language, they know that a certain sounding phrase, inflection in our voice counts by the way, when heard is supposed to illicit a certain behavior.

Their intuition is very good, it might just be picking up on the defferences in frequencies a person has but it certainly appears that they understand a lot of things like fear and pain. I never had a dog that didn't get calm and concerned when someone was sick or inured. My stepdad's dog saved his life on two occasions.

Answer 4

My Staffordshire Bull Terrier knows what I think, not just what I say. An example: When I made plane reservations on internet a few days ago, he got very anxious and would not leave my side or go out alone. Today, when I cancelled them, he went back to normal, went outside to sun and prowl the property. And I had not said a word. We've been housemates 10 years.

Answer 5

No they don't understand - as a human would. They relate the sound of the word with the action you praise them for. For example - repeating "sit" is different from just saying "sit" - be consistent and they'll get it eventually.

Answer 6

Some yes and some no. The average dog knows 75 of our vocabulary. But only short words like yes,no,sit,lay, and things of the like. So in a way yes they do know what we say and no. Hope this helps!

Answer 7

Dogs understand a tone of voice. If they do learn a word it's because of repitition. for example, if the dog learns that everytime you say "food" they're going to get fed, they'll learn what it means that way

Answer 8

Sure they are it just takes a while to learn it. Its like trying to learn another language no one gets it right away, after training they tend to learn the words what is good and bad what makes you happy and upset tones in the voice.

Answer 9

well of course they do because when you tell a dog "no" then most of them listen unless there just plain stupid

Answer 10

maybe...